Ayung river valley walk, Ubud

We arrived late into Ubud as we were enjoying the Gili’s too much to leave. It seems to have felt like that in every place we have stayed so far; we’re loving each area we visit so much that we don’t want to go. What if the next one isn’t as good? Life is bliss at this stop so what could possibly be better? So far every place has matched if not exceeded our expectations. We didn’t want Ubud to be any exception, and luckily, it wasn’t.

Our exploring had to wait on the first evening as the fast (but not that quick) boat ride followed by a long coach ride left us more than ready for bed. By comparison to other journeys we’ll be making it wasn’t that taxing but still fairly exhausting in the heat. It also pretty much had to wait on the second day too as I had ‘Bali belly’. We managed to get out to see the Palace, which was lovely and regal in a typically Balinese way, but its intricate designs, mirrored by even the lowliest of buildings, meant that we nearly walked straight past it! We also visited the Saraswati temple and it’s gorgeous lily pads – again not the easiest to find sandwiched between a Starbucks (complete with ‘ye olde ancient gong’) and the lily cafe. This short venture was not the most comfortable and so we reached the end of day 2 in Ubud feeling like we hadn’t achieved anything we had set out to do.

And in a roundabout kind of way that leads us to 5am day 3 when we are gearing up to go hiking. Having researched Ubud to death in our spare hours (and hours…and hours) we decided the best thing to do was get up and go and see things that we could access without needing a driver. Mainly because I had an argument with a taxi driver who wanted $20 to take us 10 minutes along the road, claiming we were 2 hours away. ‘Let it go Ben’ I can hear Amy saying…again. Anyway, we found the walk in the back of our Pocket Bali Lonely Planet book, and thought its 5km route offered more authenticity and adventure than the more-frequently-traveled, but still lovely, 2km Campuhan ridge walk.

The early start was necessary as the guide suggested that it would take us 5 hours to complete and venturing out around midday is tough work even if you’re just strolling in the shade, let along ‘hiking’. Also, 5 hours for a 5km walk? Surely not we said! Well an unnervingly precise 5 hours later we sat waiting for some food thinking what a good idea the early start had been! So, what on earth took us so long?

The walk is effectively an irregular/meandering rectangle starting at the Campuhan bridge at the bottom of Jalan Raya Sanggingan and finishing at the same spot. You can see a long way down to the river from the bridge and we spotted a huge lizard (scarily similar to a Komodo dragon!) that was about 1.5m long; luckily we didn’t encounter any of a similar size at closer quarters! The pedestrian crossing is a suspension bridge with vines running down its length and was a nice place for a photo. In fact we had cameras out pretty much the whole way around, there’s a lot to see!

Bottom edge – walking west through Penestanan:

Following up the hill on the same side as the pedestrian bridge,  ignore the road that doubles back on itself and continue until you see hotel Tjampuhan. Walk on about 50m further until you see wide straight steps ascending the hill to your left (to the west). Following this straight for a while meant we saw shimmering rice fields and interestingly-placed shrines down by the river bed. Turning right at the main road led down past local houses with raised gates that looked distinctively similar to the local temples.

To follow the route we had the map from the guide, which was very useful, and also Google Maps on my phone. Top tip: We purchased a local sim and for only 50,000rp (£2.50) loaded it with 4gb of data. Despite this we still managed to get slightly off-piste and ended up crossing the river through a private hotel rather than at the recommended, and public, crossing point. Everyone in Bali has been so nice and this didn’t change here with the staff more than willing to help us (find the exit!).

This got us to near the entry point for the Ayung river valley. The entrance is within the grounds of the Sayan Terrace Resort and a quick google found it to the south of where we were. It can be seen on the main road so is easy to find. The guide book states that you should ‘follow the downhill path before the gate to the hotel’s rooms. It’s steep and can be slippery […] locals will help you find your way down for a tip of 10,000rp.’ This sounds harmless enough but my own personal description would be that you need to follow the path down until the path ends. Just when you are about to turn back you realise that the muddy drain in the corner is actually the path continuing unpaved. The way to the bottom from here is obvious enough, but you won’t find any locals on their way to work (or at least we didn’t!), as they have more sense. The path is slippy as it is dry and powdery in some places and there is water running down it in others.

However, despite the difficulty, the views even from the top are spectacular and hint at the treasures that are to come. Every new climb down offers a new angle of the rice terraces and the river, and rest stops (which we needed if only to calm our nerves) offered up great vistas. Once we had transversed the cliff side for probably half an hour we reached the bottom and turned north vaguely following the river.

Left edge – walking north following the east side of the river:

This is the best bit of the walk by far. You ‘follow’ the river for 1.5km but the joy of this is that there is no set way to do it. Paths run up the valley sides and through rice fields. They follow the river but come to abrupt halts, meaning you have to climb higher to traverse obstacles. Even at 8am we were seriously considering just wading into the water to escape the heat and shorten the journey but the thrill of finding new place after new place meant the effort we exerted was completely worthwhile and water stops were taking place in some of the best places I’ve ever seen.

I don’t want to ruin the experience for anyone else by telling you which way we went. I also don’t think I could tell you even if I wanted to! However, on our journey we stopped off to see tiered rice terraces, rapids, 40ft vines, 70ft trees, an empty yoga studio, wooden stopping huts, waving farmers going about their days work, nearly inaccessible farmers houses, a waterfall, temples, a naked man having a wash, bridges, dams that could change the river flows and greenery as far as the eye can see, even in the dry period we were experiencing.

It took us a good two hours to do this part of the walk, partially because we wanted to see everything and partially because doubling back on yourself and deciding which way to go is time consuming, but follow the river as much as you can and you can’t go wrong. The ever-changing scenery is brilliant and unexpected at every turn.

The walk through the valley ended (for us) just after the waterfall where we reached the stopping point from raft trips that come from further north. There are purpose built steps from here all the way up and we saw lots of lizards along this path. I think you can go further and climb back up but we saw a way out so just followed our noses.

Once you reach the main road just follow it along (maybe pick up some water if supplies are depleted) until you reach a turning right back to the east.

Top and right edge – walking back to the bridge:

Not too much to say about this; it is a walk along a road in Bali. The north edge has a couple of pretty houses and we saw a lot of ducks. The west edge when walking south back to the bridge has more restaurants (including the elephant, which I’m sure Amy will tell you about) and is more populous but doesn’t add too much extra to the walk. The river valley is the gem but it’s nice to walk on a flat road after a while when you’re out of energy!

Overall a really unique and off-the-beaten-track adventure. We only saw one other ‘tourist’ group the whole time and they were on the other side of the valley. Everyone else we saw were locals working their plots. The best spot was in the stretch after the empty yoga-looking studio where there is a look out point down a few steps. We stopped there for quite a while and just lapped up the view. I heeded the advice given to me by my one and only yoga instructor: “breathe in that delicious air”.

I think that phrase might single-handedly explain why I never went again.